Red Knight Armament’s Medieval Morning Star Flail

Red Knight Armament, a manufacturer of ultra concealable firearms, are now manufacturing medieval-style morning star flails. The fails are made from steel and weigh up to 20 lbs, not much lighter than a M249 machine gun!

Ridiculously overpriced and utterly useless in by opinion. But hey, someone could still buy them to mount them on a panoply

Lolinski

10 kilograms

2 choices

Stick with ball and chain from steel

OR

M249 with 200 rounds.

Nicks87

C’mon Steve, Firearms not medieval melee weapons. 😉

Brian P.

What the hell is this? Is this a joke? A real flail doesn’t weigh anything close to that much! What a gimmick….

The Sargentos

“The fails are made from steel” that wasn’t a typo.

Axel n

Could you mount that in a bayonet mount?

Just Saying

I can make a heavy thing at the end of a stick with a flexible part in between for a lot less money than they are asking. And it can be just as illegal. If you need a melee weapon, just get an aluminum baseball bat.

http://waffenbesitzer20.wordpress.com Tobias P

Basic flail fail check:

Length of the ball and chain compared to the grip, spikes on the grip to make sure you don’t swing it from the wrist, weight of the whole thing.

Three out of three points.

Burst

Fuhgeddaboudit.

Even as a fan of stylish, limited practicality weapons, this wouldn’t even pass muster as a melonsmasher or stage prop.

Sian

The general design is fine, but ‘up to 20 lbs’? any flail over 2.5 lbs is ridiculous and pretty much impossible to use.

Clodboy

Contrary to common belief, medieval equipment (both arms and armor) was engineered to be exceptionally lightweight. A full suit of platemail would be around 50 pounds, and a Zweihänder greatsword would generally weigh in at under 5 pounds.

So yeah, 20 pounds seems like a little much, even for a crushing weapon.

Then again, I’m probably nitpicking here, as purely ceremonial weapons have always been much heavier.

Chase

You probably mean just plate armor. Things like “plate mail” were invented by D&D nerds like me, and didn’t really exist.

Partizan1942

Still better design for the money tan a High Point.
Just saying…

mosinman

oh totally, considering you can achieve a kill easier with the high point. so unsportsmanlike

Partizan1942

Guess I should hold up a sarcasm sign every time – huh?

gunslinger

flail fail? um.. ok

Mountian

I am not surprised this is coming from the same company that tries to sell a post-sample AR for 4.5k. Somehow a postie micro Uzi costs nearly as much as a transferable? The good news is that if you hate paying a reasonable price for firearms, you have just found the best Mfg for you.

Nathaniel

There isn’t really a very good record of flails being in military use during the Middle Ages. Regardless, if they did see combat use, their primary purpose would likely be armor penetration, and so the low, wide spikes (almost more studs than spikes) and large ball of the flail shown here would be ill-suited to that task (and very heavy for the wielder).

Military spiked flails can be inferred, if they existed, to have long, sturdy spikes protruding from a small weight, the whole mass intended to be swung very fast to get the maximum penetration of hard plate. The handle would almost certainly be made of wood, to reduce weight, or at least much thinner gauge steel than the example shown here.

There is a limit to how much weight a man can swing around with one arm for a couple of hours, and that’s about three or four pounds, even for a very athletic man. A 20 pound single hand weapon is just completely absurd.

Lastly, the hell is with the spikes at the end of the haft? Do they think you’re going to hold the spiked ball in one hand and rap the enemy with the end of your haft? Did they not think about how dangerous that might be for the user?

GeoffH

I totally agree that the weight is far too much on this flail. Some uses I can see for a flail other than armor penetration is a good whack upside the head, or breaking an arm or leg. Even with armor, a heavy enough blow could do some real damage. Not arguing that this would be all that useful in actual period combat, just that it could do serious damage if a blow were struck.

James

If they make concealable weapons, is there a permit I need to carry this concealed?

Gotta do a lot of flailing on the down-low.

mosinman

red jacket should make one that shoots flames and has a laser sight. now that my friends would be a game changer!!!

John Doe

What if we made it double and had TWO swinging spiked metal balls for TWICE the zombie killing. Two lasers could help with that. We invented a new game, and then changed that.

DW

They should replace the spiked ball with a disco ball, that would be a real game changer, or a party changer or whatever. Just something people can play with while doing Gangnam style.

Reverend Clint

this would be great for mailbox baseball… though at that point is would be Mailbox Medieval Warfare

Mike Knox

Again, another company trying to sell people something they can make themselves. How hard is it to make a simple flail?..

John Doe

So how are you supposed to swing twenty pounds of spiked metal, not expect to hurt yourself, and manage to kill more than one person? Fail flail indeed.

noob

Same way you get to Carnegie Hall – Practice, buddy, practice!

http://www.shootersnorthwest.com/forumdisplay.php?f=2 Tweak

I read that three times before I realized it didn’t say Reed Knight, I had almost purchased a ticket to Vero Beach when I saw the title correctly. Be a shame to put the boots to the wrong person.

cubolion

Not much lighter than an M249? If by that you mean not much heavier, then you would be correct.

Noir

I prefer long flails, woulndt want to be so close to my spikes.

Komrad

We have to stop these dangerous assault flails. Nobody needs that for threshing grain. These flails are designed for one thing and one thing only: killing people.
-Ye Olde Bradsworth Group

Komrad

Note: originally flails were an agricultural tool used for threshing grain. Usually, they were just wood blocks on lengths of rope with a short handle.

Kurt

I can see it now: “C’mon, baby, come over to my place and I’ll show you my flail.”

Graham 1

Good for CCW

Laenhart

There is no archeological evidence to that flails of this type really existed during the period they are normally associated with – you can find a spiked ball on a fixed handle and a chain with a small weight, but never what you see here . This is a modern invention (similar to “nun-chucks)